Bird ~ Steve Bird Winery & Vineyards Ltd
A notoriously difficult variety to grow, Gewurztraminer requires great attention to detail in the vineyard
2006 Gewurztraminer - Tasting Note:
This wine is an eruption of exotic fruits and spices with strong threads of rose blossom filling the nose. The palate is ripe, full and robust, packed with flavour and perfectly tailored to give great length and persistence that lingers almost endlessly on the back of the tongue.
At its very best in cool climates such as Alsace it produces opulent, heavily scented wines with great depth of flavour and masses of rich fruit and spicy aromatics.
In New Zealand it is a variety of minor importance. However planted on appropriately cool sites and managed with purpose and deliberate care the wines can be truly magnificent.
Gewurztraminer is particularly susceptible to the effects of cold weather during flowering and as such can have significant variability in yield from season to season, hence the pursuit of winemaking with this variety requires considerable courage and fortitude on the part of the winemaker.